Friday, January 25, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. - Western Washington, which has won its last 23 games,  will try to break its 41-year-old school record for consecutive victories Saturday when the Vikings host Alaska Fairbanks (10-6, 5-3) at Sam Carver Gymnasium. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.

The game is one of five on Saturday's schedule which marks the midway point of the conference season.  Seattle Pacific will try to keep pace with the nationally second-ranked Vikings (17-0, 8-0) when they host Saint Martin's (6-10, 2-6) in a 4 p.m. contest at Brougham Pavilion.  The Falcons (14-2, 7-1), who are ranked fifth nationally, trail WWU by just one game.

Elsewhere Saturday, Northwest Nazarene (9-7, 3-5) visits Central Washington (10-6, 4-4), Alaska Anchorage (11-5, 4-4) travels to Simon Fraser (6-10, 1-7) and Western Oregon (8-8, 3-5) plays at Montana State Billings (10-9, 3-5).  The UAA/SFU game begins at 7; the other two tip off at 7:30.

Guard John Allen scored all of his game-high 21 points in the second half Thursday as WWU kept its streak alive with a 75-62 home win over Alaska Anchorage. 

Center Liam Gibcus had team-highs of 13 points and seven rebounds for the Seawolves who held a 42-39 lead with 13 minutes left before the Vikings ran off 13 straight points to take a 52-42 advantage with 8:27 to play. The charge proved decisive as the margin was never less than eight after that.

WWU forward Austin Bragg had 15 points on 6-of-7 field-goal shooting and forward Paul Jones had 12 points and seven rebounds. Guard Cameron Severson added 10 points off the bench.

WWU’s previous 23-game winning streak ran from Feb. 20, 1971 to Feb. 15, 1972, a run that included 21 consecutive victories to open the 1971-72 season. That team ended up reaching the NAIA national quarterfinals.   The Vikings are 8-0 at Carver Gym this season and have won 18 consecutive home games, two short of the school record set from 1970 to 1972.

Seattle Pacific, Montana State Billings and Simon Fraser also posted victories Thursday.

Jobi Wall poured in a career-high 28 points, including eight 3-pointers to lead Seattle Pacific to a 78-72 overtime victory over Western Oregon at Brougham Pavilion.

Wall drained 8 of 10 treys as part of a 9-for-12 overall shooting performance. He came within one of the school’s single-game record of nine 3-pointers.  The GNAC record is 10.

WOU forced the overtime, tying the game at 66-66 at the buzzer on an uncontested putback shot by Rodney Webster after Jordan Wiley missed a trey attempt from the top of the key for the win.

Webster opened the overtime with a layup before SPU responded with nine straight points. Patrick Simon and Wall ignited the run with back-to-back 3-pointers and the Falcons converted 6 of 8 free throws during the final 1:51 to secure the win.

Simon was the only other Falcon in double digits with 20 points, 12 of them coming on 3-pointers.  Kolton Nelson netted 13 points to pace the Wolves, who also got 11 apiece from Webster, Tyler Funk and James Gehring. Jordan Wiley added 10.

Jarrell Crayton scored 18 points and had seven rebounds in MSUB's victory.  The Yellowjackets who outreboundedd the Saints 36-27, also got 15 points from David Arnold, 11 points and five assists from Kalob Hatcher and 10 from Devon Wallace. 

Roger O'Neill paced the Saints with 23 points, increasing his career total to 1,023 points.  O'Neill made 10 of 14 shots.  He also had eight rebounds and four steals.  Eric Taylor had 11 points and Evan Coulter netted 10.

Simon Fraser earned its first conference win of the season defeating Alaska Fairbanks 68-54 as Ibrahim Appiah and Elijah Matthews both came off the bench to led the Clan with 16 and 14 points and seven and six rebounds, respectively.  Anto Olah had 11 rebounds as SFU controlled the backboards 38-26.

Andrew Kelly paced the Nanooks with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Sergej Pucar had 10 points and five rebounds.